Margo Wilson

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Margo Wilson FRSC (1942–2009) was a Canadian evolutionary psychologist. She was a professor of psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, noted for her pioneering work in the field of evolutionary psychology and her contributions to the study of violence.[1]

Biography

Wilson was born on October 1, 1942, in

PhD in 1972.[2][3]

From 1972 through 1975, she was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where she met her future husband, fellow psychologist Martin Daly.[2][4] Together, they moved to Hamilton in 1978 after Daly was hired by McMaster University.[2] In the 1980s, Wilson was appointed professor of Psychology at McMaster, where she remained for the rest of her career.[2]

Wilson was elected president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society in 1997.[3] With Daly, she was, for 10 years, the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior,.[4] In 1998, she was named a fellow of the Royal Society.[2]

Wilson died in Hamilton on September 24, 2009, of cancer.[2] In 2009, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society established the Margo Wilson Award (for best paper published in the previous year) to honour her contributions to the field.[5][6]

Research

In 1978, Wilson proposed the idea to Daly that they could analyze patterns of homicide to better understand humans' social behaviours from an evolutionary perspective.[4] For the next 30 years, Wilson and Daly collaborated on this research, authoring several books and over 100 academic papers and book chapters in this area.[7][4]

Their first book on this topic, Homicide (1988),[8] has been described as a "founding"[9] and "classic"[4] text for the field of evolutionary psychology. Their second book on homicide, The truth about Cinderella (1999),[10] summarized their findings on the Cinderella effect, which suggests that stepparents are more likely to mistreat children than biological parents.[11]

Selected bibliography

(All books co-authored with Martin Daly)

  • Sex, Evolution, and Behaviour, Brooks Cole, 1978 (2nd edition 1983),
  • Homicide: Foundations of Human Behavior, Aldine Transaction, 1988,
  • The truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian view of parental love, Yale, 1999,

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Belluz, Julia (2009-10-15). "Margo Wilson's research shed light on evolutionary psychology". The Globe & Mail. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  2. ^
    S2CID 146938189
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  3. ^ .
  4. ^ "Awards". Human Behavior and Evolution Society. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  5. .
  6. ^ "Margo Wilson's research shed light on evolutionary psychology" by Julia Belluz, The Globe and Mail, October 1, 2009
  7. OCLC 16714351
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  8. .
  9. .
  10. ^ Nobes, Gavin; Panagiotaki, Georgia (2018-09-24). "The Cinderella effect: are stepfathers dangerous?". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-12-02.